Print first, post later

Photos only last if somebody looks after them. A phone can be lost, a cloud account forgotten and a hard drive dropped. Keeping pictures safe is mostly about simple, boring habits that run without you thinking about them.

The clip below is what we put on while sorting. It runs long enough to get through a month of photos.

Keep it simple

The best system is the one you will still be using next year. Keep it simple enough that it survives a busy month.

Sharing is part of keeping. A photo that three people have is safer than one that only lives on your phone.

• Keep one photo per day at most
• Leave the cover for last
• Pick a fixed day each month

Try it this month

If you miss a month, do not try to catch up all at once. Start again with this month and fill the gap later if you feel like it.

Do not be afraid of imperfect photos. A little blur or a stray elbow often tells you more about the day than a tidy, posed shot.

Picking is a skill. Like any skill, it gets faster.

Priya Nair, Paperleaf print room

Why it works

Back up before you delete anything. It takes a minute and removes the fear that stops people from clearing out at all.

Hand the phone to someone else at least once a month. It is the only way the photographer gets into the book.

Reader tip: one family keeps a paper list on the fridge of moments they want in the next book.

When to stop

A good caption answers the question someone will ask in twenty years. Who is that? Where were we? Why is everyone wet? Write the answer while you still know it, even if it feels too obvious to bother with today.

Do not wait for a special occasion. The ordinary weeks are the ones people forget, and the ones they most want to see again.

• Star photos as you take them
• Leave the cover for last
• Pick a fixed day each month

What to look for

If you share a camera roll with someone, agree on who picks which month. Taking turns means each book has a slightly different point of view, and nobody ends up doing all of the work every time.

If two photos are nearly the same, keep the one where someone is doing something. A raised hand, a turned head or a half-finished sentence gives a picture life that a perfectly still pose rarely has, even when the still one is technically better.

My mum reads the captions more than she looks at the pictures.

Leila, who writes every caption by hand

A few small rules

Be generous on the first pass. You are not deciding what goes in the book yet, only what is definitely out.